Liger

The Liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a female tiger, thus both its parents are from the Panthera genus, but from different species. Ligers are the biggest of all the big cats, growing to almost the lion and tigers combined size. They carry characteristics from both parents, for instance their love of swimming from tigers and their

highly social behavior from lions. Nowadays, Ligers can only be found in captivity as their territories don’t overlap, but in history there have been stories of ligers found in the wild. Ligers were long thought to be sterile, but this theory was disproved in 1953, when a 15 year old liger was successfully mated with a male lion. The cub survived into adulthood, despite having poor health.

At Jungle Island, a theme park in Miami, you can see Hercules. Hercules is a huge liger, with a weight reaching over 410Kg. Hercules holds the Guinness World record for being the largest big cat in the world. He is very healthy and is expected to live a long and happy life.